‘Are you excited?! It’s the last day before Christmas!’ We’ve still got three days of shows left so I was a bit perplexed as to why this was the first thing Joe said to me when I came into work today. But it did make me think that maybe it would be a good idea to sit down and reflect upon the past year. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Lucy, and I'm the Venue Manager here at Hope Mill Theatre. I first met Will and Joe two years ago when they were both performers still living and working in London. We’re now celebrating our third Christmas together (cute) and they’ve gone from first time Panto producers to owners of their own theatrical empire (well, it’s not quite an empire yet but it will be once they’ve had their way!)
Last year, I received an email from Wi

It’s usually traditional to do a ‘let’s look back at the past year’ blog post on New Year’s morning, when you’re surrounded by the remnants of last night’s party and full of the kind of optimism that only the clock striking midnight on the 31st seems to give you. But we here at Hope Mill Theatre are anything but traditional so we’re throwing convention out the window and doing a reflective blog in August. Wild, we know.
Probably one of the biggest things to happen here at the theatre over the past few months was the musical, ‘Parade’ - our first in house production, co-produced with Aria Entertainment and James Baker Productions. We couldn’t have asked for anyone better to produce with; both Katy and James were so supportive throughout the whole process and we’re

If you've popped into our cafe / bar the last couple of weeks you'll have undoubtedly overheard the enthusiastic cast of Parade rehearsing. After holding our Gala preview last Thurs we're certain it's set to be a success!
Aria Entertainment, James Baker Productions and Hope Mill Theatre have joined forces to bring a hard-hitting, literary adaptation of Alfred Uhry's novel set a century ago in deep South America to Manchester, and it's lost none of it's fire or force.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUjjp3aaq9Y&app=desktop[/embed]
Parade is a musical packed full of political intensity, exploring themes of power, deceit, judgement and America's darkest period of cultural history. At it's centre is Leo Frank, a Jewish man born in Georgia, accused of murdering a 13yr old g